Attorneys for Perdue Farms filed a memorandum yesterday further supporting its request for reimbursement of litigation costs for their recent victory in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, and calling on Judge William Nickerson to hold the Waterkeeper Alliance accountable for putting forth such an irresponsible case.
“In the Waterkeepers’ closing argument University of Maryland (UM) Environmental Law Clinic Director Jane Barrett said that she told her son that when you become an adult and start making choices, you have to live with those choices. This is what this filing is about,” said Herb Frerichs, Perdue Farms general counsel and 1988 UM Law graduate. “The Waterkeeper Alliance and Maryland School of Law made a choice to continue this litigation beyond the point where it was no longer defensible.”
“Based on their zealous determination to proceed to trial and the Court’s characterization of their actions as ‘not responsible’ and that Perdue should be ‘commended, not condemned,’ we are fully justified in asking the court to grant us reimbursement for the costs of defending ourselves,” said Frerichs in a statement yesterday. Alan and Kristin Hudson, the fourth-generation family farm also named in the suit, also filed for reimbursement of their litigation costs.
“The Waterkeeper Alliance had multiple opportunities to withdraw: when the supposed chicken manure pile was found to be legal biosolids, when the Maryland Department of Environment officially cleared the Hudson’s and determined the situation to be corrected, and again following the Court’s summary judgment ruling. That ruling made clear that the record would not support their claims at trial, and in fact, the judge cautioned the plaintiffs against proceeding with the case and warned that he could award legal fees to the defendants,” the statement said.
“Simply put, awarding litigation fees is the most effective way to discourage the Waterkeeper Alliance from doing more of the same,” Frerichs said. “Only by having to pay some portion of the defendants’ legal fees will the Waterkeeper Alliance not see this case as a success–whatever the cost to the courts and to innocent parties forced to endure the ordeal and expense of merit-less lawsuits.”
